House Proud 
A belated salute to the Washington Post’s Philip Kennicott, who July 4th shared with readers his meditations on America and the world’s obsession with replicating homes of the great and the good, or at least George Washington.  
Mount Vernon, soon to host another superfluous “Presidential Library,” holds first place in the nation’s architectural imagination, or lack thereof. Kennicott spotlights the many sad recreations of the Big House, and Lydia Mattice Brandt’s research into America’s mysterious practice of making foreigners and school children troop through replicas at half a dozen World’s Fairs and exhibitions.
We Might Be Giants    
Current star practitioner of this architectural ghost walking is Alan Greenberg, whose accomplishments include a toy house Mount Vernon for future Chief Executives with excess family cash, and a “flagship” store for the always strenuously patriotic Tommy Hilfiger.
Ronald Reagan exhibited some of these morbid symptoms, enjoying work at a replica of George Washington’s desk before he was president even of the Screen Actors Guild.
It’s not only the Great House.
      Kentucky proudly hosts a fake Abraham Lincoln boyhood cabin, now replicated on coins.
And an Okinawa businessman’s strange fakery compulsions could only be satisfied with a recreation of Bill Clinton’s boyhood home.
On Okinawa.
   Give The Gift Of Karl! 
In my day your basic Fathers Day gift was cigars, or something vaguely tool-related.
But family values Republicans appear to believe that Dad reads, or at least has shelf space.
Hardly had excitement died down over the Nixon Library’s touting Dick Morris as Father’s special gift, when word comes of yet another words on paper offering on this special day. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 
Operators are standing by, and if you move snappily you might be one of the lucky 200 Karl Rove fans to get a boxed version of his “highly anticipated memoir” of his “often-controversial role” in the Bush administration.
But There Is More! This timeless classic in real leather is being offered at a mere $30, reduced from $37.00. That’s an 18% savings!
Especially Wack 
They’ve had to surrender parts of the Nixon Presidential Library to ancient enemy the National Archives, they’ve seen their beloved Watergate exhibit trashed, but the Nixon bitter-enders still have some fight in them.
Coming Monday at the Nixon Library, the return of a particularly byzantine branch of the Nixon tree: a former Nixon aide claiming Watergate was but an elaborate scheme to install Teddy Kennedy as President, with a walk-on by youthful ingenue Hillary Clinton.
The details need not concern us here [trust me, it’s a stretch], it’s the spectacle of these lost battalions hoping against hope that over that next hill is the promised land.
It makes the Truman cult look normal by comparison.
The Nixonian event flogs a book which appeared in 2008 and promptly sank from view, the book’s blog remaining a dream unfulfilled.
If only they’d mobilized the awesome power of social media®! 
Freedom Sold Separately! 
National Treasure [& long time PresidentsRUs favorite] Al Kamen fills a Friday Washington Post column with updates on the George W. Bush Presidential Library’s exciting “Freedom Registry.”
As faithful readers are aware, the Registry lists donors to the Bush Library project, starting at the low low price of just $50.
Now Kamen reports it will not merly list of names on a wall, or inscribe them on a brick, but will entail the hallmark of late 20th century technology: interactivity!
“Using the latest technologies, this innovative registry will be housed in a specially designed kiosk and will feature an interactive listing of those chosen for this special recognition”
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 Never has self selection been more meaningful.
Fries With That? 
Bush donors are getting off easy. The bandit princes of the Young America’s Foundation are soaking the rubes for a thousand dollars, in return for which their name is inscribed on the “Freedom Wall” tucked away out of sight on the Reagan ranch property. Why these believers in Reagan’s Berlin Wall shattering Mighty Voice would build a wall is unclear.
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 Barry Unfortunate 
AFP via TPM reports that the awesome power of social media is being mobilized by Indonesians unhappy with Jakarta’s statue commemorating Barack Obama’s childhood there. And proud Americans are joining the fun!
An Indonesian Facebook group has 55,000 members, while their English language clones make do with 2000.
The magic of social media is that anyone may join, and do. But messages may get muddled in the churn. The English site boasts the lovely monkey statue shown above, while some Indonesians focus on Obama and Israel. 
  Apparent non-Indonesian Jack Ellis provides a two-fer, joining denunciations of the Jakarta statue while vowing not to donate to Haiti relief, lest Obama get a statue there, eventually.
Hating Boy & Man
